Creating seasonal campaigns with vehicle graphics

Making the most of your vehicles for marketing.

Incorporating seasonal elements into your campaigns at Christmas (or Easter) is a proven way of increasing sales and creating a huge visual impact. If you’re considering a seasonal campaign, then vehicle graphics should definitely be in the mix – here’s why.

Practicality and proven reach

The point about a seasonal campaign is its time limited appeal, which means you need a smart way to reach as many people as possible in a short space of time. That’s where creating mobile billboards through car graphics comes in. A vinyl wrap is a cost-effective way to reach many people quickly and easily, and the versatility of the medium means you can rapidly adapt your existing campaigns by adding additional decals or customising an existing wrap.

Given the cost of advertising, being able to create effective and affordable campaigns with such a huge reach is something every marketer should be looking at when a seasonal holiday rolls around.

Unconventional and effective

A vehicle wrap turns every traffic jam into a new marketing opportunity and every car park into a billboard. Though often perceived as an unconventional marketing method, 85% of customers in all markets and demographics are reached by car wrap advertising, making it extremely effective, with a minimal cost per impression of around 0.10p.

In addition, using a less conventional way of advertising has a subliminal impact, too. It says you’re a business that’s prepared to put themselves out there and take risks to maximise your marketing potential, and that can be very attractive, particularly to younger purchasers.

Influencing customer decisions

Seasonal holidays, particularly Christmas, are intrinsic to our popular culture and are now celebrated by millions of people around the world. It’s what makes the holidays the ideal time of year to run time-limited promotional campaigns, where urgency equals effectiveness.

There’s usually a huge uptick in spending around Christmas and the New Year, and people looking for products and services tend to feel pressured to get things done before the festive season. It’s a great time, therefore, to capture and convert potential customers, by influencing their purchasing decisions with a clever seasonal marketing campaign.

Planning your killer marketing campaign

First, pick your holiday. You may want to use vehicle graphics to promote a summer campaign or a spooktacular event at Hallowe’en, but let’s focus on Christmas, because it’s probably the focus of your current marketing strategy.

Evaluate your existing campaigns for clarity of message. Are you connecting with your customers? Are they engaging with your campaigns? If so, how?

Now you can start to nail down your messaging for your vinyl wrap design. Think about the emotions you want to evoke in your customer and an appropriate call to action. Keep it clear and simple – and seasonal. Start planning your campaign at least 2 months in advance and check with your sign company what their lead time is for seasonal vinyl wrap designs.

One of the keys to a successful seasonal campaign is watertight organisation of your assets across a wide range of media. That’s where your vinyl wrap can play a critical role in pushing out social media and contact details to as wide an audience as possible, so your call to action becomes crucial to the success of your mixed media marketing campaign.

Getting the design right

Always be aware of the shape of the vehicle that you’re wrapping – your sign company should be able to produce some 2D modelling that will give you an impression of the final effect. Try not to use too many competing graphics and photos, keeping colours consistent with your brand. Remember, your car wrap designs should be consistent with the rest of your advertising and marketing.

Choose simple sans-serif fonts and say no to script fonts unless it’s part of your overall branding. Keep the message clear, and if the campaign is a seasonal one, inject some seasonal humour – nothing works at Christmas better than a silly cracker joke or a pun that’s relevant to your business.

You need to think about visibility and maximising the impact of your vinyl wrap, so work with a good team of designers who understand the importance of great design in car wrapping.

Installation art

The final piece of the vinyl wrap jigsaw is the installation. It’s what makes car wrapping such a flexible and responsive way of advertising, but don’t be fooled by companies offering cheap wrapping services – getting it right is an art.

Ideally, you’ll be working with a company that understands the importance of great installation and that offers integrated design, manufacture and wrapping services. Not only will your vehicle be out there looking its very best, but a properly installed wrap – however temporary – will also protect your van or car from wear and tear.

So is a seasonal campaign worth it?

Your seasonal advertising campaign will have four major benefits for your business: customers are more likely to act when a campaign is seasonal and time limited, their spending behaviours are more generous, they’re more likely to sign up for your offers and you don’t actually need to do much market research!

If you want to harness the power of seasonal campaigns with a unique form of advertising that has a huge reach and proven visual impact, then you need to start Christmas wrapping – your vehicles, that is! Get in touch with us today to discuss how you can harness the power of vehicle graphics in Seaford. Call The Sussex Sign Company today on 01273 424900

Car signage for businesses

Car Signage

Whatever goods or services your company sells, the chances are you are constantly on the lookout for new ways to promote and advertise your business. Taking out local radio advert slots or placing an ad in the local newspaper are both valuable exercises, as are leafleting campaigns and getting involved in community fundraising events. Few marketing ploys, however, have the reach and impact that installing vehicle vinyl can have, so in this post, we’ll be exploring just a few of the advantages car signage can bring to your business.

Get your name out there

Not only can a vehicle wrap lead to increased brand recognition in the long-run, but you’re more likely to make an immediate impact on people and make a direct, instant connection. Most people these days leave the house equipped with a smartphone or tablet, and most will admit to making impulse buys whilst out and about, thanks to the convenience of the small screen.

If they see your contact details on the side of your vehicle, potential customers are far more likely to visit your website or social media pages, or put in a phone call there and then. Sitting behind your contact details and instantly accessing your site as they’re stuck in traffic means they have no chance to forget you before they get home.

Research suggests a branded vehicle is typically seen between 2,000 and 9,000 times an hour – that’s a lot of eyes on your car or van, so making use of the side of your vehicle as an advertising signboard makes good business sense. Once you’ve paid the initial cost of having vehicle vinyl installed, your commercial vehicle is effectively acting as a mobile billboard. Since you’d already be using your van or car to get between jobs or clients, you might as well make the most of it!

Get the look you want

The technology behind car vinyl wrapping has come on so quickly in recent years that you can now have virtually anything you want printed and attached to your vehicle. Working with a top signage company and professional car wrapping signwriters means you can achieve everything from basic logo, contact details and colour schemes through to incredibly complex and detailed designs.

Being able to fully customise your business car or van gives you great scope for creativity and will help you convey business message information and brand identity. What’s more, if you have more than one vehicle or even an entire fleet to worry about, identical vehicle vinyl can be quickly and easily produced to see your branding carried across all your transportation.

This means that however many cars or vans you have on the road, that branded livery will make them instantly recognisable to potential customers and create a unified fleet of vehicles. Because vinyl is also so easy to replace, should your business want to rebrand at a later date or simply update your contact details, it’s a straightforward task to kit your cars and vans out with new vehicle signage.

Gain more trust

Vehicle vinyl is not only beautiful, but it actually increases trust in your brand. People like the strong, professional look which a high-quality car wrap can bring to a vehicle, and they’re far more likely to look further into your company if your fleet is well-presented. Shabby or faded paintwork doesn’t bode well in the eyes of prospective clients and customers, so making sure your vehicles look in top condition will lead to increased authority and trust in your business, which in turn means higher sales.

Investing in high-quality, long-lasting vehicle wrapping is a cost-effective way of seeing your business van or car is well-protected and will remain looking good for anywhere up to a decade. Not only is vinyl quick, clean and easy to remove or replace, but it actually shields the paintwork underneath from any scratches or nicks you might pick up in the course of your work. That means the wholesale price of your vehicle won’t be damaged by a car wrap and your vehicle will be better protected.

Working with the best

There’s no denying that vehicle vinyl makes a powerful visual impact on those who see it. It’s incredibly difficult for both pedestrians and other motorists not to register and engage with a beautiful, bold, bespoke vehicle wrap, and people are naturally more drawn to the aesthetically pleasing branded vehicle than the plain or poorly maintained one. Ensuring your business car or van has top of the range car signage is, therefore, a wise investment and makes sound business sense.

With vehicle vinyl, your commercial vehicle is working for you round the clock and 365 days of the year. Whether you’ve left it on the street outside your house overnight or have simply popped to the supermarket in it, your branded car or van is promoting your goods and services to a massive audience of potential clients and customers – don’t miss out by leaving the side of your vehicle blank!

In order to make the greatest impact, though, you need to be confident in the design and quality of the vehicle wrapping you’re investing in. At The Sussex Sign Company, we’ve spent many years keeping up to date with all the latest advances in vehicle signage and can craft the highest-quality bespoke car wraps, which are perfectly tailored to your business and the brand image you want to convey.

With an expert team of designers and fitters, we can help you get the look you want – whether you have a little runaround or an entire fleet of vehicles. For more information on how we can help, simply get in touch with our professional signwriters today.

Paint vs. vinyl wrap

If your company car or van looks like it’s in need of a little TLC, then you might be wondering how best to polish it up. Many people would instantly think that a lick of paint wPaint vs. vinyl wrapould be the quickest fix, but car vinyl wraps are now so much easier and quicker to design and install that they’ve already become a popular alternative.

Paint and vinyl both have their advantages and disadvantages, so to help you decide how best to enhance and customise your vehicle, we have put together a breakdown of the pros and cons.

Paint: the plus side

Paint is a very reliable way of sprucing up your commercial vehicle easily, and skilled painters and signwriters can achieve very neat, long-lasting results. If you want that ‘straight off the factory floor’ look, then having the entire vehicle resprayed can get you the result you’re after.

Similarly, if you’ve changed the colour scheme your company uses, then getting your vehicles painted in the new shades you have picked is straightforward, and allows you to recreate the same scheme across an entire fleet of vehicles, if needs be. One final advantage is that painting is a simple job and so there are plenty of companies which can provide their services to you, whereas vinyl wrapping is a more specialist route to go down if you want top-quality results.
Paint: the downsides

One of the major disadvantages of painting your vehicle is that you have to get all the bodywork done, so it can become expensive. Variations in shade and finish mean you can’t simply touch the paintwork up here and there, but will need to have the whole vehicle entirely resprayed to ensure an even coverage – otherwise it could end up looking like a very silly patchwork!

Paint also has a tendency to fade, flake and rust over time, so while it might seem like a long-term solution, you could find it starts to look shabby within a relatively short space of time, depending on the quality of the job and the conditions your vehicle is exposed to. There’s nothing worse than spending all that money only to see your company name and logo are becoming so bleached by sunlight that passersby can no longer see them properly.

Depending on the complexity of the paintwork and the text or images you want painted on to the side of your car or van, your vehicle could be out of action for a number of days while the work is carried out. You might have an alternative runaround to see you through this period, but bear it in mind when deciding.

Vinyl: the plus side

One of the main advantages of car vinyl is that it acts as a second skin for your vehicle, meaning all those annoying little scratches, scrapes and nicks which are part and parcel of everyday driving don’t affect the paintwork underneath. Because it can be so easily peeled away, you can also be confident that vinyl won’t damage the bodywork and your vehicle’s resale value won’t be affected, should you decide to sell it on.

Also, thanks to that easy peel aspect, if a section of your vinyl wrap is damaged then it’s incredibly easy just to replace a small part of the vehicle wrapping – with a paint job, you’d be looking at the expensive route of having the entire vehicle resprayed. It also means you can quickly and easily change your vehicle wrap at any time, whether it’s simply to update your contact details or as part of a major rebranding exercise.

If you own a fleet of cars and want brand unity across all your vehicles, this is far easier to achieve with vinyl. Custom-made designs can easily be replicated across any number of cars and vans, and there are multiple types of vinyl car wrap to help you achieve the exact look you want for your fleet.

Vinyl: the downsides

There are very few negatives, but one of the disadvantages of car vinyl is that it can take a couple of days to install, so you will need to factor in some down time for your vehicle. That said, paint can take anywhere between a week and ten days to be fully applied and allowed to dry, so vinyl can be the quicker fix.

In some cases, vinyl might be more expensive than paint, but that is entirely dependent on what you request from your vehicle vinyl wrapping company. If you have a large sided vehicle, then more material will need to be used, and going for an incredibly detailed and complex design will also push the costs up. In general, however, the technological advances behind vinyl have made it much more cost-effective in recent years.

Ultimately, the choice you make will depend on the vision you have for your car, van or fleet of vehicles. Both paint and vinyl wraps have their pros and cons, so it’s important to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of both before you make your final decision.

If you do decide that vehicle wrapping is for you, then you need to ensure you work with a company who can deliver the highest quality car wraps to guarantee they will be well-designed, well-fitted and made to last. The Sussex Sign Company has been providing local companies across the south-east with the best bespoke vehicle wraps for a number of years, and our experienced team of designers and fitters can see you get the very best vinyl for your vehicles.

To find out more about the types of vinyl car wrap available to you and the services we provide, simply get in touch with our expert team today.

Five reasons to update your vehicle livery

Whether you own a runaround vehicle or a whole fleet of cars or vans, updating the livery of your company vehicles will give your business a whole new lease of life. A brand new livery means so much more than simply making your vehicles look pretty. It can have a positive knock-on effect on other aspects of your enterprise, helping boost brand awareness, generate interest among potential customers and giving you the edge over the competition.

Your vehicle livery is your way of getting your name and brand seen, letting the public know about the goods or services you supply and how they can get in touch with you. Here are just five of the top reasons for updating your livery today.

It’s free advertising space

If you already own the car or van, then the side of your vehicle is prime, free advertising space just waiting to be exploited. If you’re not already making use of it, then you’re missing a very important opportunity to promote your business and get your contact details seen. If you do already have vehicle signage, it might be time for an upgrade, to keep it up to date and looking attractive.

What’s more, your car or van provides you with round-the-clock publicity. Whether you’ve just stopped off for a few minutes at the petrol station or have left your vehicle parked up on the street overnight, your vehicle signage is always there and always visible.

You will reach more people

Studies have found that a vehicle with company branding could be seen by between 2,000 and 9,000 people per hour, both other road users and pedestrians passing by. With that much exposure, you can’t afford not to have an attractive livery. People are instantly attracted to bold, well-designed car graphics, so updating yours to ensure it’s looking its best is a wise move.

While you could fork out for a slot on the local radio or an advert in the local paper, the audience for such publicity tends to be very limited and the effect short-lived. With your livery acting as free advertising, you could reach more people without having to lift a finger, just in the course of going about your daily working life.

You can create a unified brand

Most companies will have a specific logo, colour scheme and font which they use across all their corporate branding, on everything from their shop front sign to their letterheads, their business cards and their websites. Including your vehicle in that overall, unified brand identity is important, because your business vehicles often play a key role in your day-to-day work.

A unified brand means customers are better able to instantly recognise your company, seeing a familiar logo and colour scheme across a range of materials and platforms. With your fleet of vehicles proudly displaying your new livery, you’re ensuring that unified brand is gaining as much visibility as possible, so potential customers will know it again when they pass by your shop front’s illuminated signs, or see that familiar font at the head of your restaurant menu or price list.

It helps you stay current and on-trend

Many companies are reluctant to embrace change, but change is sometimes exactly what’s needed to inject new energy into a business. If your company has been around for a while, it could be that your logo and branding are looking a little outdated and could benefit from a bit of an update, to ensure they’re on trend. Perhaps you’re regretting that particularly vivid shade of green you picked all those years ago, or you think your logo now looks a little bit unfashionable. Whatever the reasons, if your branding is looking a little tired, then it might be high time for a makeover.

It’s also a good opportunity to update your contact details. Many more companies are embracing social media and making use of their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, so if you want to direct more traffic to your website and social media platforms, then you need to make sure people know how to find you. Adding this information to your vehicle livery is a great idea, because people who are out and about with their smartphones to hand can instantly search for you before they have a chance to forget.

It shows you mean business

There’s no doubt that we’re in for yet another tough year, and keeping ahead of your rivals is crucial. Whatever field you work in, from shops and estate agents to restaurants, bars, cafes, gyms, cleaners and building firms, you know just how fierce competition is at the moment. Companies which invest in themselves and in their own self-promotion show they mean business and are here to stay.

By updating the livery of your car, van or fleet, you’re showing the world that you take pride in what you do, and if you show an interest in your business, then potential customers will be more inclined to show an interest too.

Here at The Sussex Sign Company, we’ve perfected our vehicle wrapping techniques over the course of many years, and are able to offer our clients the highest quality and most long-lasting vehicle signage. Our expert team of designers can work with you to craft bespoke and beautiful vehicle wraps which truly reflect you and your business. If you’re feeling inspired to update your vehicle livery, simply get in touch with us today.

Vehicle Signwriting: What are the Benefits?

Being a business owner means no end of tasks and concerns to tackle and take care of. Of these responsibilities, advertising and business promotion is perhaps one of the most costly and time-consuming. Many businesses choose to consult a marketing agency – a choice which inevitably involves paying substantial fees and handing over the future of your business to people that you have never met, who themselves lack the intimate knowledge of your business necessary to draw up a plan that properly responds to your needs, values and goals.

Vehicle-based advertising offers a way out of this conundrum. Forget using a paintbrush and a pot of paint to literally write your advert onto the side of your vehicle – the long-established art of vehicle signwriting has moved on leaps and bounds in recent years.

Vinyl for High Impact, Long-lasting Signage

The use of vinyl instead of paint carries with it a wide range of benefits. For one, it’s far less time-consuming and doesn’t require the trained and talented hand of an artist. Indeed, you could apply your own vinyl lettering depending on the complexity of your sign, but for larger vehicle signage covering the dips, gaps and raised surfaces of the side of a van, the skills of an expert can be a godsend.

Modern vinyl sheeting takes advantage of the latest advances in technology, including special egress channels on the adhesive side to allow air to escape, making those annoying bubbles a thing of the past. Certain kinds of adhesive are also available which allow the installation technician to move the vinyl sign around on the substrate before activating the adhesive once the perfect location is found.

As a result of not requiring an artist, modern signwriting that makes use of vinyl is also much more cost-effective, with a typical sign likely to set you back hundreds, not thousands, of pounds. More complex and detailed signage, including that done with full or partial vinyl body wraps, can carry a larger price tag, but also allows us to demonstrate another compelling benefit of vinyl – its longevity.

Some vinyl wraps can last up to five years, and lettering is even more long-lived. Standard vinyl letters last from four to seven years, while higher quality premium vinyl can last up to an entire decade, ensuring that your investment in vehicle signwriting provides a healthy return for many years to come. Vinyl is highly durable and withstands the elements of the notorious British climate without difficulty.

Whilst your sign may last for ten years, we’d naturally recommend changing it and giving your vehicle a facelift slightly more frequently to ensure that your sign keeps turning heads and attracting the right kind of attention. And, unlike painted signs, which require very expensive full vehicle body resprays, vinyl can simply be peeled off with the right tools.

But how effective is it as a form of advertising? Read on to find out why we believe it’s one of the best forms of business promotion available, ticking every box and making the lives of business owners much easier.

Widen Your Reach

When you buy an advertising slot on the radio or rent a billboard, your advert appears at a particular point in time or space respectively, after which it disappears. If your advert failed to attract much attention to communicate your message during this short window, then your marketing investment was wasted.

When your advert occupies space that you already own for an unlimited amount of time, and is attached to a mobile vehicle, then you have overcome the constraints on time and space that the above traditional means of promotion carry. This allows your sign, and thus your message, to reach a far wider range of people than would otherwise be possible.

And this expanded reach for your promotion isn’t inconsiderable – marketing research suggests that on a busy high street, around 3,000 people will come into contact with your sign every hour. If your vehicle spends the day parked outside a shop in which you’re doing work for the owner, the number of people that you could reach would number the tens of thousands. This demonstrates the unparalleled power of vehicle signwriting.

Boost Awareness and Favourable Sentiment

It goes without saying that by transforming your vehicle into a mobile billboard, your target market will slowly become more aware of your company and what you have to offer. This is an excellent benefit in itself for one reason – studies have shown time and again that consumers are far more likely to purchase from a brand that they’re familiar with, even if they haven’t personally tried their products or services before.

There is an array of additional benefits from increased brand awareness as well. One piece of market research that focussed on brand awareness from vehicle signage in particular found that around three quarters of respondents claimed to have a favourable opinion of companies and brands that they encounter through vehicle signs. Consumer perceptions of these businesses typically include that they are well established and successful firms.

This in turn makes consumers more likely to seek to purchase your goods or services, as well as recommending you to their friends – even if they haven’t personally required what you have to offer.

Cost-effectiveness

Vehicle signage, measured by cost per impression, comes out far cheaper than all other forms of advertising – this is a well known fact. But few people think about the additional financial benefits. By turning your vehicle into a moving advertisement, you can transform unproductive time, such as a traffic jam or your daily commute, into potentially productive time well spent.

And your usual productive work time is multiplied further – while you’re busy working away, your vehicle will also be silently but strongly promoting your firm’s unique proposition to a whole host of potential customers. Call us today on 01273 417057 to see how we can help.

The Sussex Sign Company explains the pricing for vehicle wraps

Dependent upon your requirements, design sensibility, and time frame, the budget for a partial wrap on a small vehicle can cost from £500 to £1,200. A full wrap, van wrap then the price will start at around £1,200 for a small van and rise to a maximum of around £2,500.

Does it really take three days?
If you want a first class job done and we are fully wrapping your vehicle then yes, we do really need it for three days. After all, you don’t want the wrapping media lifting after just a few months do you? It takes a long time to clean your vehicle properly and take off all the items that need removing to be able to fully wrap your vehicle.

Can I take the wrap off when I need to sell the car?
All of our vehicle wraps are removable – this is a benefit of getting the vehicle wrapped. It also offers some protection against damage to the paintwork.

How can I be sure the material you use will last?
We have been wrapping and signwriting vehicles for over twenty years now, and have used pretty much every kind of vinyl there has been on the market. As a standard we only use 3M or Avery Dennison. These two manufacturers are regarded as two of the best vinyl manufacturers in the world today, and they also the most expensive. As a business we would rather explain why we are more expensive than our competitors than have to explain in six months why your vehicle wrap has failed.

Does the wrap last as long as the vehicle?
Our preferred vehicle wrapping media is either 3M or Avery Dennison which are widely regarded as the two best vehicle wrapping media companies in the world today, however the life of the wrap depends on many difference factors, not least, the condition of the vehicle prior to wrapping, how you keep your vehicle clean (what chemicals are used on it) and what part of the world the vehicle is kept. However, even when you take all the above into account, our vehicle wraps should comfortably last between 3-5 years.

How do I clean the vehicle?
The best way to clean your car is to wash it by hand, or better still get someone else to wash it for you J
All our vehicle wraps are laminated if it is a digital print, and if you have a solid colour change, then the material is colour fast. We would not recommend a jet wash or a mechanical car cleaner as the power of the jet wash can lift the edges of the vinyl on a power wash and the brushes can be abrasive to the material.

Do you guarantee your work?
All our work comes with an unconditional 12 month guarantee; however, manufacturer’s warranty on materials can come with up to 5 years, subject to various terms and conditions.

Is your company insured?
We hold Public Liability insurance of £10,000,000. We also hold a motor trade policy which covers our team members when they are driving your vehicle.

My vehicle has been repaired in the past, is this a problem?
As long as the vehicle has been repaired properly and the paintwork was keyed in properly and baked on, then this should not be a problem. However, if the repair job was not carried out properly or with regard to the manufacturer’s specifications, then this may cause a problem with adherence of the vinyl.

Do you wrap the door shuts?
In a word – no, all our wraps are kerbside wraps which means when the vehicle is viewed driving along the road or parked up, the vehicle is a different colour than the original colour. We do not advocate wrapping inside of the door shuts.

Image of – Full Colour car wrap designed for charities – Sussex Signs.Image of – Partial wrap with digital elements – Sussex SignsImage of – digitally printed partial wrap – Sussex Signs

Call us today on 01273 417057 or Email us from here

A list of the towns we work in throughout East and West Sussex is listed below.

East Grinstead , Crawley, Gatwick, Horsham, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Steyning, Worthing, Arundel, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Selsey, Chichester, Midhurst, Petworth, Portslade, Brighton, Hove, Newhaven, Seaford, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings, Hailsham, Lewes, Uckfield, Heathfiled, Crowborough.

Top purchases for 2014

A survey by online magazine, Signlink.co.uk, has revealed the items at the top of wish lists for sign makers in 2014. One of the most surprising results was that none of the respondents was considering buying a computer this year.

At the top of the list was a digital printer: 42% of those surveyed indicated that they were likely to purchase one this year. This desire to move into digital printing coincides with the fact that more sign makers are now expanding their portfolios, to offer a wider range of services. Advances in technology have made it more cost effective for them to carry out work such as vehicle wrapping, window graphics and point of sale.

Second on the wish list was a router, with 33%. This was followed by 16% who were looking to purchase a new car or van to use for delivering materials or as an additional marketing tool.

The survey was conducted online between Christmas 2013 and January 2014. It asked readers of the magazine what items they were hoping to buy for their business over the course of 2014.

Here at The Sussex Sign Company we are constantly evaluating our business to ensure we have the right tools to carry out our work to the highest quality.